Quentin Tarantino certainly made some interesting choices for his top movies of 2011

Somewhere between the know-it-all decree of the cineratti and the brash, jabbering voice of The People lies Quentin Tarantino’s annual list of the year’s best movies, as according to Quentin Tarantino. And much like years past, Tarantino has refused to kowtow to the conventions of both the industry and list-making, choosing a Top 11 (12 if you count the tie between The Artist and Our Idiot Brother), and picking an eclectic mix of Oscar contenders, upstart indies like Attack The Block, and mainstream multiplex fare such as Paul W.S. Anderson’s widely panned and ignored The Three Musketeers—a movie that Quentin Tarantino nevertheless believes was far better than a whole lot of other things he saw this year, and probably has some very long, arcane explanation as to why.

But he definitely thought it was better than Drive, for one, a movie that one might expect to appeal directly to his sensibilities, but which Tarantino instead lumped into the condescendingly titled “Nice Try” category, alongside Drive Angry, Hannah [sic], and Real Steel—presumably because their stylized spins on grindhouse material failed to measure up to his personal paradigm for such an approach. As it is, none of those movies could compare to Kevin Smith’s Red State, The Green Hornet (more evidence of Tarantino’s undying love for Seth Rogen), or even Green Lantern, all of which Tarantino liked much, much more. Though at least Drive et al. were spared the indignity of joining Sucker Punch on his “Worst Movies” list—a list which has since been removed from The Quentin Tarantino Archives, perhaps to avoid seeming too contentious, but still lives on below (thanks to The Playlist).

Quentin Tarantino’s official Top Eleven of 2011
1. Midnight In Paris
2. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
3. Moneyball
4. The Skin I Live In
5. X-Men: First Class
6. Young Adult
7. Attack The Block
8. Red State
9. Warrior
10. The Artist / Our Idiot Brother (tie)
11. The Three Musketeers